Foreign leaders reportedly get primer for kissing up to Trump

'Compliment him on his Electoral College victory'

Published 4:02 pm, Friday, May 19, 2017

President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump departed Washington Friday for his first foreign trip abroad, a nine-day, five-stop marathon. Trump's itinerary begins Saturday in Saudi Arabia, then to Israel, the Vatican, Brussels and Sicily. (May 19)

Saudi Arabia arranged to serve the president's favorite dinner, steak and ketchup, along with the regular lamb and rice, according to the Associated Press.

But what of foreign leaders in Riyadh, Rome, the Vatican, Brussels and other stops on his nine-day tour? How do they get on the mercurial American president's good side? How can they avoid offending or boring him?

Fortunately, something of a primer for meeting with Trump has been cobbled together by ambassadors, embassy staff and their Washington consultants, according to the New York Times.

Here is the checklist, as reported by the Times on Thursday:

1) "Keep it short — no 30-minute monologue for a 30-second attention span."

2) "Do not assume he knows the history of the country or its major points of contention."

3) "Compliment him on his Electoral College victory." (Trump's fixation on winning the election is well-known abroad.)

4) "Contrast him favorably with President Barack Obama."

5) "Do not get hung up on whatever was said during the campaign."

6) "Stay in regular touch."

7) "Do not go in with a shopping list but bring some sort of deal he can call a victory."

Former British ambassador to the U.S. Peter Westmacott put it in a nutshell:

"If you were prepping people for Donald Trump, the two or three points would be: one, bear in mind this is still a guy who focuses on wins," he told the Times. "He likes to have wins for America and wins for himself from bilateral meetings."